In 1893 Otto Schoenleber was searching for a new business venture in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He met a chocolate maker and the two men formed a partnership and founded a new company.
On May 9, 1894, the Ambrosia Chocolate Company opened for business in Milwaukee. The founder, Otto J. Scholenleber agreed that “Ambrosia” would be a truly appropriate name, for the Swedish scientist, Lineaus, had identified the cocoa tree as theobroma cacao …”Food of the Gods.”
Throughout the early years, the little company struggled. A firm believer in the axiom, “There is no such word as failure,” Otto Schoenleber and his employees worked together so that at the end of the first two years, the business was established. Ambrosia had trade extending over the West and Northern United States.
In 1907 the first expansion took place and a three story addition was added. 1911 a five story addition was added. Then in 1913 Gretchen Schoenleber joined her father as an associate.
Concentrating on consumer items: penny goods and such favorites as solid chocolate confectionery, Peter Peter Bars, Angel Food, Chocolate Cigars, baking chocolate and breakfast cocoa in these startup years, the variety then expanded into chocolate bars for the first vending machines.
Gretchen became president upon the death of her father in 1927. Surviving the stock market crash of 1929, Ambrosia built a four-story addition in 1930, allowing for office space, and more manufacturing area.
Another addition was completed in 1941, and once again Ambrosia supplied chocolate to the armed forces during World War II.
Gretchen passed away in 1953, and L. Russell Cook was elected Ambrosia’s president, beginning a new period of growth. Modernization and expansion were the keys, and in 1955 one of the first bulk sugar systems in Milwaukee was installed.
The next few years were filled with further expansion with the acquisition of the Hooton Chocolate Company in 1961, the merger with W.R. Grace & Company in 1964 and a six-story addition in 1967.
W.R. Grace & Company formed Grace Cocoa in 1988. It was divided into three operating divisions: Ambrosia became part of the Chocolate Americas Division, specializing in chocolate and compound baking chips and coatings. Merckens Chocolate, Mansfield, MA, joined the division in 1990.
Ambrosia Chocolate eventually became a subsidiary of Archer Daniels Midland.
Tags: chocolate
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